Stick bag through TSA

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To those who have brought their stick bag as a carry on: Can you let me know how that worked out with airport security?
Going from LAX to MIA tomorrow but would like to lighten the suitcase by carrying the stick bag.

Very well Known Member

I've never travelled with my entire stick bag, but I was stopped and searched at x-ray in Boston a few years ago because the operator thought the pair of sticks and small pad in my carry on messenger bag was an axe.

I'd be up front and make security aware of what it is, just in case. I'm not up to date on TSA regulations but I believe certain small tools are permissible, if you happen to have any in there as well.

Very well Known Member

I've never had problems with sticks or brushes, but my RealFeel pad must look suspicious in the X-ray machine. If I forget to remove it from my bag, the bag gets searched. And once, the TSA guy inquired as to the quality of my buzz roll.

Very well Known Member

I've never had problems with sticks or brushes, but my RealFeel pad must look suspicious in the X-ray machine. If I forget to remove it from my bag, the bag gets searched. And once, the TSA guy inquired as to the quality of my buzz roll.

Very well Known Member

Years ago ..... pre 9/11 ...... I had a bizzarre interaction at "proto TSA" over a pair of brushes I had in my carryon. The guy had no idea what on earth they were ....... until his female co-worker hipped him to what they were used for. I got to demonstrate on my newspaper ........

Weirder by far: leaving John Wayne International after a visit to NAMM in 2004, I got busted for my vintage Rogers drum key which I always carry for luck. The head guy actually answered my Q ..... WHY? His answer: "you could disassemble the airframe with that".

I had to go back to the terminal and mail myself the key ....... and oh yeah, book a new flight.

DFO Veteran

I remember playing a gig at the Austin International Airport one afternoon and they ran the hi-hat and snare stand through the x-ray. I could understand the drum & case, stick bag but was surprised about the stands.

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Early 2000’s had a drum key taken. Same story “don’t want you taking apart the plane.”

Used to fly with cymbal bag as a carry on. That one almost always got inspected hands on after going thru the scanner.

And as an aside, back when I was touring, I was only regionally famous, so when we’d fly to other towns, nobody had any clue who my band was. At the time, Third Eye Blind’s song “Semi Charmed Kind of Life” was a popular song and video. I looked a lot like the drummer in the video, so just started telling people that’s who I played for!

DFO Veteran

Years ago ..... pre 9/11 ...... I had a bizzarre interaction at "proto TSA" over a pair of brushes I had in my carryon. The guy had no idea what on earth they were ....... until his female co-worker hipped him to what they were used for. I got to demonstrate on my newspaper ........

Weirder by far: leaving John Wayne International after a visit to NAMM in 2004, I got busted for my vintage Rogers drum key which I always carry for luck. The head guy actually answered my Q ..... WHY? His answer: "you could disassemble the airframe with that".

I had to go back to the terminal and mail myself the key ....... and oh yeah, book a new flight.

Sorry you had that happen. I'm a licensed FAA Airframe and Powerplant mechanic and that is literally the dumbest thing I've ever heard from any TSA person. It's sad some of these folks graduated from the fryolator to a government job.